Spirits Among Us
by EmoJak80
Summary: Spirits are among us. We just can't see them, but our favorite hero can.
1. Chapter 1

As Jak and Daxter were heading to the Underground hideout, Daxter had noticed something about Jak. He noticed Jak walked as if he was avoiding people and I don't mean trying to be far as possible, but as if he was avoiding bumping into people like in a crowded sidewalk. He'd seem like he'd get a small nudge here and there. He'd also some times make his strides longer than others like he's trying to not step on something.

Daxter thought about asking, but as he was about to say something, Jak made a quick right turn down an alleyway, picking up speed in his stride.

"What's up, Jak?" Daxter asked, a bit curious as to why Jak took this way. Isn't a bit longer to get to the hideout?

"Nothing." Jak said in a low mumble and kept walking, making different turns through the alleys.

They finally arrive at the hideout, ten minutes later than Torn had expected them to be,

"What the hell took you two so long?" Torn snapped at them as they entered.

Jak walks up to the older man's desk,

"There was a patrol of KGs following us." Jak said with a serious expression, hoping Torn will believe it.

Daxter knew Jak was lying so he decided to back up Jak's little white lie,

"Yea! Those goons think we're that stupid to fall for an old trick like that? Ha! You've shoulda seen them when they lost track of us! Pfft morons." Daxter gloated.

Torn stared at them for a moment then he bought it, hook, line, and sinker,

"At least you led them away from here. Now for the mission, the scopes have picked up some metalheads in the forest. Go and take them out." Torn informed them.

So with that Jak and Daxter head out for the forest.

When they came out through the warp gate, Daxter thought it was time to get some answers,

"Can I ask you something, Jak?"

"What?" He said as he broke open some KG crates to collect some ammunition.

"I've noticed the way you avoid things that aren't there, what's with that? You know you can tell me, buddy." Daxter asked with a bit of concerned in his voice.

Jak hesitated for a moment thinking about if he should tell him or not. Wondering if Daxter would think he's going mad. He sighs thinking,

' He wouldn't think that, would he? He is my friend..'

He takes a breath and answers,

"Dax, I...I can see things that no one else can." He says as he slowly loads his gun.

Daxter sits there processing what he just heard. Able to see things that others can't? Did he hear him right?

"Really?" Daxter asked not in a sarcastic way but in a curious way.

Jak nods,

"Yea.."

"What kinda things?"

"Spirits. Not like the dead, but the spirit spirits. They have different forms, according to their element." Jak says as he rubs his arm, a bit nervous of what Daxter thinks of him now.

"Their element? Like eco elements or something else?"

"Like the woodlands, fire, and water. Stuff like that." After he say this, he starts to see the woodland spirits come out.

"What do they look like?" Daxter asks.

Jak squats down to the tiny spirits,

"The woodland spirits take the form of small rocks, mushrooms, pieces of moss, just different things. Heh, they even have eyes. Kinda goofy looking."

A tiny spirit that looks like moss manages to climb up Jak making tiny squeak sounds like it's grunting then sits on his shoulder guard next to Daxter and smiles seeing it try to sit like Daxter.

Daxter notices Jak looking in his direction and looks at where he's staring,

"What? Is there one here?" He asks as he points to the place where Jak is watching.

Jak nods,

"Yea, it's looking at you."

Daxter smiles as he watches Jak, he's never seen Jak act carefree since Sandover. He just seems so calm like a child quietly playing with his old cherished stuffed toy. He smiles, liking seeing Jak like his old self again.

Jak helps the little moss spirit down then stands up and walks, watching the tiny spirits move so not to be stepped on as Jak makes his way to the floating platform. He places one foot on the platform holding it in place seeing how some of the tiny spirits wanted to ride as well as the rest of them go their the tiny hidden tunnels in the earth. Once the ones that wanted to ride was on, he carefully places his other foot on the platform making it move to the forest.

Once there, he steps off completely with the spirits following him down the cliffs and all the way to the great tree. Jak looks around, remembering the mission and looks for any sign of metal heads as gets up on stone blocks looking over the rest of the forest,

"See anything, Dax?"

Daxter helps scan the forest,

"Nope. Maybe they left once they caught wind of us coming."

"Funny, Dax." He says as he goes down the ramps, heading for the pond.

As they approach the pond's edge, Daxter looks at the water,

"You said there's water spirits to, right?" Daxter asks, kinda curious.

Jak looks at him then at the water,

"Yea there is. They take the forms of air bubbles, water particles, sea weed, and other things."

"Cool." Daxter comments as he looks at the water trying to imagine them.

Jak squats down to look at the tiny water spirits convers with the woodland spirits. As he did, he felt like he was being watched, he also notices the water and woodland spirits scatter and hide, comfirming his fear. But before he could react, he was tackled from behind. The force causes Daxter to fall off his shoulder as he and the metal head go into the water and start sinking. Jak tries to fight the metal head off, slowly becoming lightheaded seeing how he didn't have time to get enough air in his lungs.

A little air bubble spirit conjures up the courage and with determination in it's eyes, it bolts towards Jak to help him. When it gets to him, it touches Jak's slightly blue lips, telling him it wants in his mouth.

Jak, knowing what the bubble spirit wants he opens his mouth and the little bubble shoots in and down his throat, giving him the ability to breathe underwater for at least ten minutes, just enough time for him to take care of the metal head. Jak manages to get the metal head to release him then he gets the metal head in a choke hold as they sink closer to the darker part of the water. Seeing the dark water spirits start to go crazy with hunger for one of them, Jak chokes the metal head til it stops moving then releases it watching it sink towards the hungry dark water spirits, watching them tear into the dead carcass.

Jak breaks the surface and sees Daxter and the tiny woodland spirits sigh with relief.

"Don't do that ever again, ya hear me?!" Daxter yells, glad Jak is alright.

Jak smiles, but as he was about to speak he hic ups causing the little brave bubble come falling out and into the water. He smiles at it and holds his hand to it letting it rub up against his hand and whispers his thanks to the little bubble.


	2. Chapter 2

Spirits Among Us

Chapter 2

After the trek back to the Underground in the cold rain, Jak and Daxter was greeted with an empty hideout,

"Huh, I wonder what went down to make the old grump leave his hidey hole." Daxter said as he hopped onto the bunk closest to the hanging zoomer with all the grace he can conjure from his tired body. Hanging on for dear life can be exhausting.

But between the two of them, Jak was the worst of them. Being covered in cuts, scrapes, bruises, metal head blood, his own blood, and mud can sure dampen one's mood,

"I'm gonna go get a bath before whatever mud is left to harden." Jak says as he heads towards the door behind Torn's desk. His voice sounding as if he had gurgled gravel.

"Okay, but I get one after you. So save some hot water for me!" Dax calls out as Jak goes down the hall to the bathroom.

Once he enters the small bathroom, he flips the light switch, illuminating the tiny space in a dull yellow glow from one lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling, giving the room a candle light glow to it. It was kinda relaxing. Jak shrugs his shoulders and closes the door and locking it as he strolls over to the tub and turns the water on. Once he gets the temperature of the water where he wants it, he starts to strip off his gear and peeling his clothes off earning a hiss or two from his busted lips. He looks up at the mirror and wishing he didn't. Eying all the scars that littered his body, some old and some new. Slowly reaching up and gently tracing one scar, a rather large one, that ran diagonally across his chest. It's light violet hue glowing eerily from his touch, following his fingers, leaving a glowing trail behind then fading as his fingers slide down the scar. From watching the display in the mirror, the memories start to show their ugly head, making his head start to ache more than it already did. A faint whimper escapes him, the memories still fresh in his tormented mind. What they did to him was wrong and unjustified and he'll make them pay for it. For torturing, beating, experimenting, and stealing two years of his life from him. He shuts his eyes and shakes his head, then heads towards the tub and turns the water off. He carefully steps in the warm water, slowly sitting down and relaxing into the water. Feeling the pain melt away into the water. Sinking into the water, just below his nose, letting his thoughts flood his mind. Thoughts of Sandover started to fill his mind making him smile as the memories of him and his friends playing on the beach of Sentinel Beach and racing through the Mountain Pass play in his mind.

The memories stop playing when he hears faint clicking of rocks on a stone floor. He looks over the tub seeing coals laying on the floor, he watches them for a moment. There was maybe ten coals lying there, some of them in different sizes.

Jak let's a lazy smirk cross his tired features as the little coals' eyes slowly open, realizing they've been spotted, but they don't make to scramble away. Instead they roll towards the tub and look up with their big goofy looking eyes.

Jak chuckles a bit as he crosses his arms on the rim of the tub and propping his chin on his arms and looks down at them,

"Hey there. What brings you in here?"

The little coal closest to him starts to squeak at him like it's talking.

He sits there listening, being able to understand the spirits' language. Once the little spirit finishes and looks up at him, it's eyes making it look like it was smiling.

He smiles back at it,

"Well, I don't really see why you can't. I'll help." Jak replies then looks around for a moment then spots what he was searching for. He picks up a small saucer and places the half melted candle down where he had picked up the tiny china. He lowers it to the stone floor and watches as some manage to get up onto the saucer, then he lifts it up and dumps the coals into the water and repeats til all the coals was in the water.

Once all the little coals was in the water, they roll about spreading out, then start warming up the water to a relaxing temperature, making a smile spread across his face as he closes his cerealean optics.

~/~

After a few hours pass, Jak is awoken to the sound of banging,

"Jak? Jak! Open the door!" Daxter yells as he bangs on the door with his tiny fist.

As he sits up and yawns, Jak stretches his arms over his head and looks around realizing where he was and chuckles to himself then quickly washing his hair and body in the still warm water. Once he finishes, he climbs out, wrapping a towel around his waist, then picks up the saucer and gets the little coal spirits out as the water drains from the tub. Laying the small dish on the floor with the last of the coals, he watches them shake off and their warm glow return to normal,

"Thanks, I needed that." he says as he dries off.

The little coals smile at him, then they go down through their hidden tunnel network as he puts on a clean pair of black boxers, an off white, knee length pants, and a fitted gray muscle shirt.

"Jak! For Precursors sakes! Open th--" his sentence gets cut off as the door quickly opens, revealing an annoyed Jak,

"About time! I was beginning to think you went down the drain!"

"Very funny, Dax." Jak rolls his eyes as he walks out with his gear in one arm and his dirty clothes in a bag and heads towards the set of bunks closest to the entrance of the hideout, dropping his gear on the floor. Then he heads to the laundry room, once he gets there he dumps his clothes in the machine, gets a detergent packet and drops it in and starts the machine.

Daxter walks in and jumps up onto the dryer,

"Hey, buddy. What took so long in there? You ok?"

Jak had to admit that he liked having a friend care about him, but some things he just wanted to keep to himself, but he guessed it would be good to talk about 'certain' things. Not yet he thought..

"I'm fine."

Daxter looked at him, still wanting to help get whatever is on Jak's mind out in the open instead of letting it fester and make him sick inside,

"Jak, you know you can talk to me, buddy. Right?"

Jak nods.

"Then talk to me. What's eatin' ya?"

He sighs as he looks away from Daxter,

"I don't want to talk about it." he gets up and walks out of the little room and heads to the bunks.

Daxter sits there for a moment then goes after him and sees Jak is already on the top bunk. He wanted to keep trying, but he knew Jak wasn't gonna talk til he wanted to. So he gets up onto the bottom bunk and crawls under the blankets and slowly falls asleep,

"I hope you feel better in the morning, bud…" Daxter whispers then finally falls asleep.


End file.
